Saturday, June 27, 2009

All webmasters will at some point face one question: how will I find a good and cheap web hosting provider?

The web hosting business is saturated with web hosting companies competing for your business. You'll find everything from huge companies hosting hundreds of thousands of web sites, to the small reseller operating out of Mom's garage. So how can you make an educated decision with all those options?

All web site hosting companies tend to have some similarities, although their main sales arguments are normally focused on two things; cost and bandwidth. A lot of the time people go for a sales pitch like that. Getting something that's inexpensive is desirable to most folks, and if it seems to come with some great extras too, then all the better!

So if you are choosing between a web hosting company that's offering a cheap web hosting plan with 50GB bandwidth for $10 per month, and a different hosting company that promises you a hosting plan with 500GB a month for five dollars, a lot of people will foolishly pick the second option. However, it is this type of logic that leads to disaster for many web hosting clients.

Sure, it's great to save a few bucks - although do you believe a web hosting company is going to give great support and reliable service when you pay them almost nothing? The old saying "You get what you pay for" is very truthful, and the complete truth is you're far more apt to receive great service if you keep clear of the really cheap web page hosting packages.

That being said, it is also true that the service quality can differ a lot betweeen web site hosting companies in the same price range. In truth, the one way of making sure you keep clear of the bad apples is to do a little of your own research. Check out places such as Web Hosting Talk to find out for yourself what real customers feel about the web hosting provider they use.

While there isn't a web hosting company that will be liked by everybody, you will find that some have a lot more complaints than others. I have done extensive research on this and learned that while some web hosting providers may have mostly good reviews, other providers have mostly negative reviews. In conclusion: when looking for an affordable web hosting service, keep clear of the cheapest offers and do some research before you sign up.